Guide
9 Literary Locales in the Western United States
In genre fiction the western United States is often portrayed as gunslingers, saloon drinkers, tumbleweeds, and Joshua trees. The iconic backdrop and setting has been a source of inspiration for many writers who are taken in by the region’s charms, which means that many a notable author has stayed in some of the many historic hotels that dot the landscape to pen the works they later became famous for.
Historic Hotels of America®, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation recognizes, celebrates, and promotes the finest hotels in the United States. Today there are over 300 hotels inducted into Historic Hotels of America from 45 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico—and they recently released their 2024 Top 25 Most Literary Hotels List.
We’ve pulled nine Historic Hotels of America member sites located west of the Mississippi where the magic happened for some of the most renowned American writers.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
The Menger Hotel (1859)
Oscar Wilde doesn’t usually invoke images of the western United States, but before he became the famous writer we know him as today, Wilde traveled the U.S. and Canada giving lectures on Aestheticism, or the idea that art need only be beautiful and that it doesn’t need to have a deeper meaning. In 1882, while on his tour, he checked into The Menger Hotel in San Antonio, Texas, and lectured that evening at the nearby Turner Opera Hall, an event so eventful as to be written up in "The Evening Light" newspaper. Dating back to 1859, The Menger Hotel has been a Historic Hotels of America member since 1989.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
Hotel Boulderado (1909)
It’s not only novelists and playwrights who are drawn to the west, but songwriters too. Boulder, Colorado, has long been a hub for musicians, and John Prine was no exception. Prine was so taken by Hotel Boulderado that it’s name-dropped in his 1975 song “Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard.” Prine was a regular at the hotel for more than four decades until his death in 2020. Prine fans can take the hotel’s music history tour to learn more about this beloved artist and what kept him coming back to Hotel Boulderado for so many years. Built in 1909, long before it was a music destination, Hotel Boulderado has been a member of Historic Hotels of America since 1996.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
The Broadmoor (1918)
While Truman Capote is best known as a Southern Gothic writer, he spent time in the west interviewing people for his true crime book, "In Cold Blood". Though set in Holcomb, Kansas, Capote spent years conducting interviews, which included traveling four and a half hours away to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he stayed at the Broadmoor. Capote and his best friend Harper Lee, who by then had her own meteoric rise to literary fame, were photographed together at the hotel in 1963. Capote would go on to return to the Broadmoor many times, often hosting elaborate dinner parties. Befitting the prosperity that came with the end of World War I, The Broadmoor opened in 1918 and was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 1989.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
The Strater Hotel (1887)
The Strater Hotel in Durango, Colorado, is no stranger to literary stardom. In the 1960s and '70s, the prolific writer of Westerns Louis L’amour and his family would stay at the hotel for a month every August. L’amour liked Room 222, which was above the hotel’s Diamond Belle Saloon, so he could write his Sackett family novels to the establishment’s jaunty ragtime piano. Of the 19 Sackett family novels, it’s unclear how many L’amour wrote at The Strater Hotel, though guests who stay in Room 222 today can write their own book at the same drop-leaf table L'amour wrote his. Built in 1887, The Strater Hotel has been a member of Historic Hotels of America since 1989.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
La Fonda (1922)
Author Willa Cather, best known for her novel "My Ántonia", is synonymous with the literary tradition of the region. But what fewer people know is that her 1927 novel, "Death Comes for the Archbishop", came to her while she stayed at the La Fonda in Sante Fe, New Mexico. She completed the novel within its walls during that initial stay in the summer of 1925 and a one-month visit in 1926, which was essential for Cather to capture the area’s culture and landscape and render it so beautifully in the novel as to make the book a modern classic. Built in 1922, it didn’t take Cather long to flock to the hotel’s scenic charms, which earned the establishment its 1991 induction into Historic Hotels of America.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
The Andrus Hotel (1917)
Author Thomas Savage didn’t just live out west, he worked as a ranch hand and wrangler on his stepfather’s cattle ranch. While ranching wasn’t his calling, his experiences attending high school in the nearby town of Dillon, Montana, were so formative that he later returned to make a home with his wife, the novelist Elizabeth Savage. The Andrus Hotel was a recurring setting in his 13 novels, and its backdrop, particularly the lobby and dining room, was used to provide searing commentary on big-wig-type characters, including in his most famous novel, "The Power of the Dog". Opened in 1917, right on the cusp of the Roaring Twenties, The Andrus Hotel is a 2021 inductee to Historic Hotels of America.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
El Tovar Hotel (1905)
Author Zane Grey is practically synonymous with the Western literary genre, but he might not have been if he hadn’t stayed at the El Tovar Hotel. Located in Grand Canyon National Park just a few feet from the canyon’s edge, Grey took so much inspiration from the area—with its neck-craning mesas and terrifying drops into gorges—that his novels describing the area’s landscape helped make the Grand Canyon a must-see destination. For an example of how taken Grey was with canyon country, look no further than his genre-defining novel, "Riders of the Purple Sage". With it’s 1905, turn-of-the-century grandeur, El Tovar Hotel has been a member of Historic Hotels of America since 2012.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
Fairmont Mission Inn & Spa (1922)
Between "Call of the Wild" and "White Fang", Jack London is known for being no stranger to writing swashbuckling adventures set in distant lands, but fewer readers know that California’s Sonoma County is a perennial setting in his work. While London never visited the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa, his own ranch, where he lived out the final years of his life, is a 15-minute drive away on top of Sonoma Mountain, so the hotel pays homage in a dedicated themed suite. Built in 1927, Fairmont Sonoma is the newest hotel on this list, and was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2014.
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Photo By: Historic Hotels of America
Hotel del Coronado (1888)
With his most famous novel beginning in Kansas, L. Frank Baum doesn’t usually call to mind the region either, so some might be surprised to learn that he was a regular guest at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego, California, in the early 1900s. Baum visited so often that he completed three books in his "Wizard of Oz" series on the property. While he stayed in a variety of rooms and didn’t seem to have a particular favorite, that means guests today can rest assured that Baum’s creative energy is spread throughout. With its 1888 charm intact, not only has Hotel del Coronado been a member of Historic Hotels of America since 2007, it was also named a National Historic Landmark by the Secretary of the Interior.
Mandy Shunnarah (they/them) is a writer who loves old things. When they're not writing their next book, they can often be found wandering around historic places like theatres, cemeteries, and author homes (usually with permission). Learn more at mandyshunnarah.com.